Algae and Light Help Injured Mice Walk Again
Scientists are working on unconventional methods for controlling neurons in the brain. In one such experiment, a mouse’s behavior was controlled by shining a light directly on its brain! But this was no ordinary brain -the mouse had DNA from algae inserted into its neurons, which made them responsive to light. The crucial part of these experiments is making the new genes active in only certain types of neurons, depending on the outcome we are looking for. Stanford psychiatrist Karl Deisseroth and his team are experimenting with optogenetics to help victims of Parkinson’s disease, starting with mice.
Many experts had thought the cure was to stimulate certain kinds of cells within the subthalamic nucleus, which coordinates motion. But when they tried that, it had no effect whatsoever. Then two of Deisseroth’s grad students began experimenting with a dark-horse idea. They stimulated neurons near the surface of the brain that send signals into the subthalamic nucleus — a much harder approach because it meant working at one remove. It was as if, instead of using scissors yourself, you had to guide someone else’s hands to make the cuts.
Their idea worked. The mice walked. In their paper, published in April 2009, they wrote that the “effects were not subtle; indeed, in nearly every case these severely parkinsonian animals were restored to behavior indistinguishable from normal.”
Other experiments on rhesus monkeys show promise. The team is now designing ways to make optogenetics safe and effective for humans. Link
(image credit: Justin Wood)
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Mouse Runs on Trackball Through Virtual Maze
(YouTube Link)
Princeton neuroscientist David Tank wanted to study individual neurons in a mouse’s hippocamus as it moves. But the movement of the mouse’s body prevented accurate readings. So he placed the mouse on a giant trackball and let it run through a virtual maze from the video game Quake 2 displayed on screens. Brandon Keim writes in Wired:
Studying individual neurons has been possible in cell cultures, but brains in a dish behave different than real, living brains. Tracking individual neurons in moving animals has been impossible.
“The neurons move back and forth while you’re trying to measure things,” said Tank. “So we developed a way to keep the head fixed in space, but still have mice perform behaviors that are usually studied in mice running through a maze.”
Tank’s team designed an apparatus in which a mouse, its head firmly held in a metal helmet, walks on the surface of a styrofoam ball. The ball is kept aloft by a jet of air, so that it functions like a multidirectional treadmill. Around it are sensors taken from optical computer mice, which read the ball’s movement as the mouse runs.
Those readings were the input for the researchers’ virtual reality software — a modified version of the open source Quake 2 videogame engine, tweaked to project an image on a screen surrounding the mouse. Tank called it “a mini-IMAX theater.”
Link via Popular Science
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Mouse Trap
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This cute mouse is too smart for a classic mousetrap! Extra points to the videographer for effective use of music. -via Buzzfeed
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Computer Mouse + Taxidermied Mouse = Mouse Mouse!
What do you get when you combine taxidermy with gadget hacking? Instructables users noahw and canida released the step-by-step instruction on how to make your very own taxidermied computer mouse: Link – via Rue The Day!
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DIY "Eye Mouse" for Disabled People
Two students from a technical high school in Argentina built a mouse that can be controlled by eye movements, thus allowing people with total paralysis to use the computer.
The invention is named the "Eye Mouse." This idea is not new but what makes it different is that it is a DIY mouse that almost anyone can build with cheap and easy-to-find components.
How does it work? The free software that they provide, divides the monitor surface in squares and asks the user what he wants to do – focus on an area, right click, left click, etc – with yes and no answers. If the eye looks at the camera, that is translated as a "yes".
With just a webcam, an infrared LED, a small, flexible metal tube and the headband of a welding helmet, anyone can build the mouse at a fraction of the cost of similar devices.
The students wanted to make the Eye Mouse available to everyone, so the software is free. They have published step-by-step instructions on how to build the mouse, originally in Spanish but they have already been translated to English.
Link – via ticbelgrano
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A Rat on A Cat on A Dog
Here’s a great picture of a three-layer love fest. I almost wish there was a tiny flea on the rat just to make things even better. Best. Picture. Ever. I especially love that it wasn’t staged, the photographer just happened across this freak occurrence.
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Revenge of the Mice
A deadly fire that killed nearly 100 cats at an animal shelter in Toronto, Canada, was caused by …. mice!
The fire at the humane society shelter in Oshawa also killed three dogs and some rats that were up for adoption.
An initial report from the fire marshal says mice or rats chewing through electrical wires in the ceiling are likely to have sparked the blaze.
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Souvenir de Chine
Two mirrors, a little bait, and a camera. Put them together and you have Mother Nature making a kaleidoscope! Music by the Swiss band Larytta. Video directed by Körner Union. A pleasant way to spend three minutes. Link (embedded YouTube clip).
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Happy Birthday, Mouse!
Wired celebrates the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of the first computer mouse on December 9th, 1968.
Computer scientist Douglas Engelbart kicks off the personal computer revolution with a product demonstration that is so amazing it inspires a generation of technologists. It will become known as “the mother of all demos.”
The presentation included the debut of the computer mouse, which Engelbart used to control an onscreen pointer in exactly the same way we do today. For a world used to thinking of computers as impersonal boxes that read punched cards, whir awhile, then spit out reams of teletype paper, this kind of real-time graphical control was amazing enough.
Englebert also demonstrated other computer abilities such as hyperlinks, windows, and videoconferencing, among other ideas we use today, although it took the computer industry decades to implement them. Link
In addition, Wired has a gallery showing the evolution of the computer mouse. Link
(image credit: SRI International)
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White Bread Wrist Support
Do all those web browsing and mousing around make your wrist tired? Perhaps you’re not getting the necessary wrist support. Well, you can remedy that with this brilliant product: the white bread wrist support! Link
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Mouse Agility
I’ve certainly heard of training dogs, cats, parrots and almost every other animal under the Sun to do tricks but trained mice is something new to me. This little video presents Brain Storm who has been trained to run through a dastardly tough looking course. However, she prevails with the awesome Olympic Fanfare Theme by John Williams playing in the background to help her speed to victory and glory! Oh, and please don’t get too squeamish over the mouse or the mousey leftovers on the table. 
And the judges have their score cards ready: 9.0, 9.0, 9.5, 9.0, 10.0! It’s a new record!
More info on Brain Storm and other mice here – Link
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Steampunk Furnace Mouse
Behold the glowing, ember-filled furnace steampunk mouse that would look
perfectly in place next to Babbage’s Analytical Engine (what’s that?). As if this mouse isn’t cool (hot?) enough, the maker just created v2.0: the twin furnace mouse!
Link (with build-log goodness) – via Brass Goggles
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Inflatable Mouse
The device itself is fairly simple: a small flexible circuit board inside a body that is composed of plastic and can be blown up manually. When not in use, it can be de-flated and folded into a compact size or slid between the screen and keyboard of your laptop when it’s closed.
Source: Gizmodo
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